Evaporator apparatus



April 18, 1950 c. P. LUDMAN Ei'AL EVAPORATOR APPARATUS Filed Aug. 18, 1947 Patented Apr. 18, 1950 EVAPORATOR APPARATUS Charles P. Ludman, Springfield, and Chester F.

Hancock, Primos, Pa., assignors to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, East Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application August 18, 1947, Serial No. 769,200

3 Claims.

The invention relates to evaporators of the tubular type wherein the tube bundle is carried on rails at the lower portion of the shell and it has for an object to use rails constructed to provide conduit spaces having nozzles supplied with water from the spaces and discharging such water as agitating jets to aid in removing scale and refuse from the lower portion of the shell.

A more particular object of the invention is to form the rails of angular section so that the flanges thereof may be welded to the shell to form conduit spaces substantially of triangular section.

The foregoing and other objects are effected by the invention as will be apparent from the following description and claims taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this application, in which:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an evaporator incorporating the present improvement;

Figure 2 is a transverse sectional view taken along the line II-II of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic and isometric view showing the rails constructed to support the tube bundle and to serve as means for discharging agitating jets of water into the lower portion of the shell.

In the drawing, there is shown a shell, at 10, having a tube bundle, at l l, therein.

The shell comprises a body portion l2 closed at one end by the end wall l4 and at the other end by a detachable cover IS.

The tube bundle, at I I, includes an inlet header IS, a discharge header l1, and a nest of tubes l8.

A conduit l9 supplies water to manifolds 2! arranged in the upper portion of the shell above the tube bundle and the manifolds have nozzles 22 distributed therealong to discharge water as a curtain of spray above the tube bundle. A pipe 23 supplies heating medium, for example, steam to the inlet header Is, a vent connection 24 provides for discharge of air and noncondensable gases from the upper portion of the discharge header l! and a discharge conduit communicating with the lower portion of the discharge header is arranged to discharge condensate from the latter.

A pair of horizontal rails 26, 26 are carried interiorly by the shell at the lower portion thereclosed at the ends by plates 32 and connected by a crosspipe 33 to form a common space to which water is supplied by the pipe 34.

The horizontal flanges 28 of the rails provide supporting surfaces carrying the tube bundle and f' the vertical flanges 29 thereof have orifices or nozzle openings 35 distributed therealong, supplied with water from the conduit spaces, and from which agitating jets of water discharge into the lower portion of the shell toaid in the discharge of scale and refuse through the bottom discharge opening or openings 36 of the shell.

While the invention has been shown in but one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited, but is susceptible of various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. In an evaporator wherein a shell having bottom discharge openings contains a bundle of tubes supplied interiorly with heating medium to heat water contacting the tubes exteriorly to effect vapor zation of the water, a pair of rails carried interiorly of the shell for supporting the tubebundle; at least one of the rails providing a conduit space; means for supplying water under suitable pressure to said conduit space; and nozzle openings formed in the rail provided with the conduit space, supplied with water from the latter, and which are arranged to discharge jets of water into the lower portion of the shell to agitate media therein incident to discharge of such media through said discharge openings.

2. In an evaporator wherein a shell having bottom discharge openings contains a bundle of tubes supplied interiorly with heating medium to heat water contacting the tubes exteriorly to effect vaporization of the water, a pair of rails carried interiorly of the shell for supporting the tube bundle; said rails having their edges Joined to the shell to form conduit spaces; means for supplying water to said conduit spaces; and nozzle openings formed in the rails, supplied with REFERENCES CITED Water from the latter and Whlch are arranged The following references are of record in the to discharge jets of Water into the lower portion file of this patent; of the shell to agitate media therein incident to 5 discharge of such media through said discharge UNITED STATES PATENTS openings. Number Name Date 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2' wherein 430,242 Way June 17, 1890 the rails each have horizontal and vertical flanges 1,617 ,081 Price Feb. 8, 1927 Welded to the shell and the nozzle openings are 19 1,650,009 C leston OV- '22, 927 formed in the vertical flanges and distributed therealong.

CHARLES P. LUDMAN11 CHESTER F. HANCOCK. 

